The color stumped me as I bought this pattern from three different flea market vendors over a years time. They were not from the same house or state… but all the same color.
MAY 27, 2025
Eventually, I came across another old-timer who knew more about the trim of the past than I did. It turns out that the catalog images were in color by the 1930s, and pastels, as well as other new color schemes, were being marketed. In this case, the trim came in the color of the paint pictured in the catalog. What a great novelty to sell with in a day when catalog sales were King. Sears, Montgomery Ward, JCPenney, and many other retail catalogs were touting items to ship by train to your local town. Here are some of the things you would see on a train from the catalog stores in the old days.
Windows and doors with their trim, jambs, and even entire houses could be ordered by catalog and dropped off at the local train station where armies of carpenters would be available to put the packages together in areas that were developing, particularly along railroad lines as these packages came before the time of the cross country trucking industry that could reach small towns. Rails were the path to riches out west and enabled the shipment of all products milled in Galveston, Houston, and other coastal towns, utilizing shipping and ports to increase commerce in and out of Texas in the 1800s.
You can see one of the doors, some trim, beaded wood, and windows of several eras assembled for this project. This house project began seven years ago, before my sabbatical from business. It was created as a teaching tool and a seminar-training house, and as a consequence, it has a few remnants of historical inaccuracy. I am hiding mistakes fairly well, enough for perfunctionism to apply. This has many things that even a young teenage girl can help install. I created a design using the organic selection from the massive inventory when students were putting things together in a hurry. Not a worry, but it shows when you get to the trim. OMG funny.
So the parts and pieces, 95% Pure Salvaged Materials, brought back to life, have saved a tree and many calories of heat required to make the glass. The labor for making the windows and doors was also saved, a significant amount at today’s labor costs for unskilled help. The trim will need repainting, but the ease with which it went on made up for that. I trimmed out the front in about two hours, maybe three, counting the time spent sorting through the trim to find where the stack would fit. By the general organic building miracle of synchronicity, the parts were just enough: four inches long on the corners. Between all the broken pieces, I have enough to build one tiny house in a very unusual style. I have enough of this Bear Claw Trim to do another house, but I doubt you or I will see it again.
One of my preferred options is to see this sell to someone who will play a part in helping set up the trust with land and materials to build out another 40 houses to stay on the ten acres, and spaces to teach others how to launch their Outposts as local Co-ops to fuel the growth of this industry. I hope you will like the progress and share it so others can see what is possible. If they come to get the materials packages for a few thousand each, they could build houses like this at your location, creating the most amazing lifelong treasures you can live in and call art. Master suites are where Wii sleep at night, not do everything at all times. Offices and kitchens, laundry spaces are just fine, but not in my master bedroom, where my rest and recuperation is my focus when I proceed the half mile walking grounded (leather on the Earth for a half mile before I sleep and after I awaken is amazingly energizing and calming as I go to my house each night. I’m free.
I have a space to sit and chat or delve into discussions, where no one bothers us when someone else is present. I love spending intimate time with the one I love, but I’m not fond of the public visiting to see what’s going on. My private space is my tiny house, and Trinity has hers, so that Wii get to sleep each night and rise without a care. Dream great dreams and heal each day to become the best in every way. This is where I go to sleep, a special time for meditation and breathing.
The time I seek when I’m there is one without a care for the world that I will leave behind when my pillow meets my head. Savor and give gratitude when you have a dream space that you can hold in your heart. Home is where the heart is, but some of us get confused into thinking a big box of Sheetrock is a home with a heart that effortlessly exudes the quality of love and life that a wooden house can do. They are not the same, and science now proves that the grain you see in the wood on the walls will bring your mind to ease. Like a fireplace that helps calm the mind that races, the soothing textures and colors naturally draw your eyes and brain in. So much to see and savor, like candy for the brain, and it helps to calm, ease the mind, and let you sleep each day without the stress of city lights, traffic, or EMF. A house that does not have them but is nestled in the trees.
This is not one of the sweetest houses, nor the biggest I have done, but the idea was to create many, so there would be lots to choose from, not just one, and inspire others to keep building and having so much fun creating artful houses that will suit nearly anyone. Want some Bear Claw trim to dress up the front of your home? I do have a little bit left, so please hurry and send an email if you’re interested in investing in a Tiny Texas House in Salvage, Texas, or if you’d like the trim for a tiny house on your land. Brad@puresalvageliving.com